The official figures confirm what we already knew. We’re becoming a nation of drug addicts.

And Butler County is just as prone as anywhere to the menace of addiction.

Heroin is reaching into new communities, according to a new government report. It’s addicting more women and middle-class users. People hooked on prescription painkillers transition to illegal drugs that are cheaper and don’t require a doctor’s prescription.

The study released this week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention determined the rate of heroin use has doubled among women over the past decade. The study compared data from the three-year period 2002 to 2004 with data from 2011 to 2014.

During that decade, heroin use grew by 60 percent among those with annual household incomes of at least $50,000 — close to the median household income in the United States. Heroin use grew by 62.5 percent among those with private insurance, an indication that the users are employed, are more financially secure and have access to prescription medicine if they really need it.

In other words, financially secure Pennsylvanians aren’t immune to heroin addiction.

Add this new data to last month’s report that at least seven Pennsylvanians are dying every day from drug overdoses. The number exceeds deaths from car accidents. Heroin and opioid addiction has become the state’s No. 1 public health epidemic.

The overlap of legal and illegal drug markets makes it a tricky thing to dismantle.

One of the provisions of the Affordable Care Act is a requirement that health insurance providers include coverage for treatment of drug abuse and addiction. For many patients, treatment involves prescription alternatives to heroin such as methadone and suboxone. Then there are prescriptions for other common symptoms and side-effects: benzodiazepines like Xanax for anxiety and depression common among recovering addicts; and stimulants like amphetamine salts, such as Adderall, to counteract the sluggishness brought on by the benzodiazepines.

There’s the additional complication of Xanax being taken with alcohol. The combination intensifies the effects of both drugs. One criminal defense attorney says his clients tell him the combination often causes “blackouts” — take a pill, take a drink, and wake up next day in jail with no recollection how they got there.

Meanwhile, in Pennsylvania there are 88 opioid painkiller prescriptions filled for every 100 people, according to the IMS Health National Drug Audit for 2012, the most recent year available. That’s about average, with states running from a low of 52 prescriptions per 100 people (Hawaii) to 143 (Alabama, Tennessee).

The prescription opioids, along with many of the antidote drugs, are classified federal Schedule II. Prescriptions for Schedule II drugs can’t be refilled — patients must submit a new doctor’s prescription every month. The intent is to crack down on abuse of prescription drugs, but in practice it forces more individuals who struggle with addiction to turn to heroin or other illegal narcotics, which are cheap and readily available, no prescription needed.

Three things must happen before Pennsylvania can turn the tide on addiction.

First, continue the fight to get heroin off the streets. Even if the drug can’t be eradicated, reductions in the supply will increase its price, making heroin a less attractive option to those who now buy it compulsively.

Second, put stricter controls on Schedule II prescription drugs. To this end, a statewide registry of prescription drug transactions went into effect on July 1, the first day of the state’s fiscal year. Former Gov. Tom Corbett signed legislation in October to activate the database, named Achieving Better Care by Monitoring All Prescriptions Program, or ABC-MAP. Its aim is to prevent “doctor shopping,” obtaining prescriptions from various doctors.

Third, the resources available for treatment of drug abuse must be increased. The Republican Legislature’s proposed budget, which Gov. Tom Wolf vetoed, eliminated $6 million for Department of Human Services’ Drug and Alcohol Programs.

Wolf had proposed increasing this amount to $7.5 million. By any measure the increase is justified. Research shows that every dollar spent on treatment saves taxpayers $7 within 12 months of the expenditure, according to the state Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs. The savings come from reduced prison and court costs, health care costs and social assistance.

The bottom line is that effective anti-drug strategies make our streets and homes safer and reduce our prison population.